Macau Says That The Number of Suspicious Transaction Has Fallen

Macau, one of the world’s gambling hubs just announced that the number of suspicious transaction reports for the first half of 2020 show the decrease in suspicious activity. According to Macau’s Financial Intelligence Office, the total number of such cases fell by more than 30% in the last quarter, amounting to only 947 cases. This is a significant decrease compared to the numbers from the same period in 2019.

There are a couple of reasons why this could be happening right now and why out of all the time I the world. the suspicious transactions have dropped during the pandemic.

Financial Intelligence Office was first established in 2006 as a part of the updated legislation on anti-money laundering and terror financing. The body analyzed information regarding suspicious transactions and when it comes to gambling there are always suspicions, and always something to look into. But this trend might be changing according to the latest data.

All in all the official body reported 464 cases out of almost 1000 that were reviewed during this period, this time last year the number of reported cases was 966.

But as it has been suggested that the only reason its positive trend is now occurring is because of the gambling scene in Macau that has been completely transferred due to pandemic. Macau has often been called the ghost town because ever since the lockdowns were introduced and COVID-19-is started to take up its speed, it has been empty with casinos closing down and all activity coming to a quick halt.

The fact that the office went through with their report is still astonishing since the country and the region of Macau has just begun to go back to work and start producing content again

Macau’s ghost town status is slowly starting to disappear as the city is beginning to open up against and China is starting to get back to its moral lifestyles. While for more than 3 months the entire cities were placed in lockdown and movement between them was restricted, the businesses have suffered huge losses, especially that dependant on the in-person presence of their clients.

The brick and mortar casinos have lost all of their customers and have been losing money non stop since COVID-19- started, and this is mainly the reason why the fraudulent transactions have decreased in volume and it can hardly be counted as a positive trend in the gambling world, even though some are trying to attribute this success to the improved anti-money laundering measures and overall increased security in transactions, which could very well be connected to this sudden fall in suspicious transactions. but we will have to wait for months to see if this trend will be sustainable and if Macao will maintain this trajectory even after the casinos reopen and people start flocking in and out of Macau and straight into gambling venues.

Since China has been continuously seeing decreases in COVID-19, the return of normalcy seems quite close now, and hopefully, the positive trend of decreased suspicious transactions will continue well into 2020.